For centuries people have been weight conscious and have been striving to maintain diets that will enable them to control their weight. In the past few years research efforts in the low-calorie food area have been greatly accelerated by medical reports disclosing the fact that a great many people in the U.S. are overweight and the adverse consequences associated therewith. Recent research efforts in the food art have been directed primarily to the production of baked goods that would satisfy one's appetite but will not increase one's caloric intake, e.g., materials that will have bulk but which are not digested by human beings. Examples of such foods are those that contain low calorie bulk fillers, gums or combination of gums and fillers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,150 entitled Low Calorie Yeast Leavened Baked Products issued to Glicksman et al. teaches the production of low-calorie, yeast-leavened baked products, specifically a bread which contains 50% or less of the calories normally contained by a conventional bread. This reduction in calories is attributable to the flour which is used in this recipe. The invention is predicated on the use of three materials in specific proportions to constitute a gluten-free flour which will emulate the properties of wheat flour. The flour contains from 1-10% of a cellulosic gum by weight of the flour, a starch component, preferably wheat starch of from 30-70% by weight and alphacellulose from 30-70% by weight. The finished baked product has a moisture content from 50-60%.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,018 entitled Low Calorie Diet Bread issued to Thompson teaches the production of a low-calorie bread containing wheat gluten, protein, alphacellulose, and a hydrophilic gum. The presence of the gum results in extra water retention whereby the dough contains 76% water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,580 entitled Flour Substitutes issued to Torres teaches a method of extending flour whereby up to 70% of the flour is replaced by the substitute flour of the invention yielding a caloric reduction of up to 35%. The substitute flour consists of cellulose, xanthan gum and an emulsifier.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,634 entitled Low Calorie Foodstuffs issued to Singer teaches a low-calorie synthetic foodstuff, namely a dough, containing less than 10 or 15% by weight of assimilable carbohydrate and consisting essentially of vital gluten, a non-nutritive edible filler, preferably a cellulosic material, a vegetable gum and water. The dough produced according to the invention will contain a flour component of 50 parts by weight, an inert filler of from 10 to 50 parts by weight, a vegetable gum of from 1 to 10 parts by weight and water at 50 to 100 parts by weight. The caloric content of a typical synthetic bread produced according to the Singer invention will be greater than 50% calorie reduced when compared to a conventional bread.
The key to making a low-calorie baked product is to dilute the recipe with a low/non caloric ingredient (bulk filler, water, etc.), yet, maintain the structure and texture of the full calorie counterpart. With the exception of the Torres patent, all of the previously mentioned patents disclose a process or a composition for forming a dough to prepare a bread. Cake and bread, although, apparently similar baked goods, depend on two entirely different mechanisms to achieve their respective product structures and textures. Bread is a yeast-leavened system whose matrix is developed by mechanically "working" a wheat flour protein (gluten). The critical consideration in bread is the continuity of the gluten network. When a low-calorie bread is attempted, the calorie reducing dilutant must not interrupt the gluten network and must also be compatible with the living yeast.
Cake is a chemically leavened system whose matrix is a foam. This foam has the batter as the lamella and a combination of air (from mixing) and carbon dioxide from the baking soda/powder as the gaseous phase. The critical considerations in cake are the surface energy and flow characteristics of the batter. The calorie reducing dilutant must not hinder the lamella forming ability of the batter or an uneven foam structure (or no foam structure) will result.
The present inventors compared cakes made according to their process containing their level of ingredients versus cakes embodying the Torres patent. They found that the examples in the Torres patent produced cakes which were less than 25% calorie reduced and which contained less than 25% water in the cake as consumed. The Torres cakes were perceived to be excessively dry. Cakes made according to the present invention however were greater than 40% calorie reduced and while they contained 40% or more water on an as-consumed basis, the cakes had a good overall taste perception, one which was not perceived to be overly moist.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a low-calorie cake having a reduction in the caloric content of 40% or more and a moisture content of 40% or more. It is another object of the invention to provide a low calorie cake which although contains a high amount of moisture, is not perceived to be excessively moist and which provides desirable texture and structure in the finished cake product.